


Old Flames

by greekowl87



Series: @txf-prompt-box Tumblr [11]
Category: The X-Files
Genre: F/M, MSR, alternative universe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-08
Updated: 2018-01-08
Packaged: 2019-03-02 00:08:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13306236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greekowl87/pseuds/greekowl87
Summary: Taken from an anonymous AU prompt request on Tumblr's @txf-prompt-box.Sitting in a bar by himself an ex FBI agent turned hospital therapist runs into a new ER red-headed doctor from his past 25 years later.





	Old Flames

**Author's Note:**

> The actual prompt: "It's 2018. Mulder has been working as a doctor for 25 years now and he's been married to Angela White for 5 years now. In the hospital a new doctor just started working with him. Her name is Dana Scully, she just moved to town with her husband Ed Jerse. At first Mulder and Scully don't like each other at all but that starts to change when the two find out that they have a secret in common."
> 
> I was a little liberal with the timeline.

A doctor. Of Psychology. A shrink. He was not like other doctors of the hospital. Real doctors with medical degrees capable of saving lives. And the hospital administration just kept him on staff to help diagnosis the minds of those too far gone. He sighed into his drink of crown and coke as the music in the bar shifted to Johnny Cash’s “Rings of Fire.”

“I fell into a burnin’ ring of fire. I went down, down, down and the flames went higher.  
And it burns, burns, burns. The ring of fire, the ring of fire,” Johnny Cash crooned over the speakers.

“Sing it, brother,” Dr. Fox Mulder, Ph D. and former FBI profiler from about 25 years ago sighed miserably into his drink. He snapped his fingers and caught the bartenders attention. “Another one.”

“Want the same?” he asked gruffly.

“Yeah and a menu.”

Mulder was not a raging drunk but he would prolong going home as long as he could. Usually, he would order dinner, drink a couple of crown and cokes, mull over his phone, watch the tv, or read patient files–anything to prolong him going home to the unhappy marriage he had with a former police detective turned hotshot lawyer who he knew was carrying out an affair with her law partner, lawyer what-his-name, in a torrent love who refused to divorce him because of the money. He met Diana White right after he retired from being an FBI profiler, went back to school to get his doctorate, and started working at the hospital. Mulder didn’t know what it was but a one night stand turned into a very unhappy marriage in his late age. One fucked up guy is what he was.

The bartender delivered his drink and Mulder always wondered how his life could have been different if he had stayed in the FBI and decided to go to the thing he found. The something files. But no. He had left after Patterson had broken him and now here he was 25 years later, in a bar as the shrink who could help others but couldn’t help himself. He chuckled as Johnny Cash’s echoed the ring of fire longingly.

“Ring of fire is right,” he grumbled.

He was about to order himself dinner when a frizzled petite redhead still wearing dark blue scrubs threw her purse up on the bar and flashed him a smile. “Is this seat taken?”

He shook his head, sitting straighter, moving his suit jacket to the side. “Sorry. Of course, of course.”

She gave him a grateful smile and slide next to him on the near bar stool. Mulder gestured for the bartender’s attention and he smiled politely. “You, uh, work at the hospital?”

“What?” the red her asked, distractedly. Her blue eyes focused on him and she smiled. “Oh, yeah. What gave it away.”

Mulder gestured to his dress shirt and smiled. “The scrubs were a dead give away.”

She chuckled softly. “Yeah.”

He smiled enigmatically. “I haven’t seen you there before, but I feel like I have.”

The bartender approached and smiled. “What can I get for you, hon?”

The doctor smiled and looked over at Mulder. “I’ll have what he’s having.”

“Crown and coke coming up.”

“So, what do you mean you’re surprised you haven’t seen me before?”

Mulder smiled as the bartender brought her drink. He held out his hand. “Dr. Fox Mulder, residing therapist of the hospital in bum fuck nowhere. And you are Doctor…”

Mulder? The name sounded familiar to the female doctor as she shook his offered hand. “Well, Dr. Mulder. I’m Dr. Scully. Dana Scully. Nice to meet you.”

Scully? The way she smiled, she seemed so familiar. “So, Dr. Scully, I can’t help notice you are new.”

“Yes, my husband and I just moved her along with my darling stepchildren,” she sighed, looking into her drink.

“I can’t help but note a tone of sarcasm.”

She chuckled bitterly. “My husband, Ed…if you could call him that, I’m convinced he’s carrying on an affair but I can’t prove it. And my stepchildren hate me. I’m sure of that too.”

“Your husband wouldn’t happen to be a lawyer, would he?” he asked bitterly.

“Marketing manager,” Scully answered. “Why?”

“I’m convinced my wife of five years is having an affair with her law partner,” he chuckled. “So, are you hungry, Dr. Scully? I was just was about to order dinner. Hungry? My treat?”

He gave her a stunning smile and she felt a sense of deja vu wash over her. “Mulder,” she began tentatively, “I would like that, thank you.”

“Someone must have told you I hated being called Fox,” he chuckled, passing her the menu.

Mulder had heard the rumors about the new doctor and how cold and distant she was. But her work was unparalleled.

She took and darted her tongue out in thought hesitantly. “Were you ever an FBI agent?”

“My dark secret must have gotten out. I was a profiler up until 1992 then I left and went back to school, got my doctorate. Why do you ask?”

“This is going to sound really weird, but when I was at the academy, I, uh, had a one night stand with someone they’d call Spooky Mulder.” She giggled guiltily. “I just wonder, no it’s silly.”

“That I had a one-night rendezvous with a doctor who was going to be a forensic pathologist with the FBI? The funny thing is, Scully, I haven’t thought about her or that name in decades.” He titled his head in thought. “Did you ever study pathology, Dr. Scully.”

“A long time ago, I left the FBI,” she confessed. “I can’t believe this! I slept with Spooky Mulder and I am meeting him again 25 years in a bar!”

“And we work together.”

They shared a smiled. “I thought you were a jerk for not calling me the next day,” she said, sipping her drink.

“I left my number, for the record. I thought you hated me for what I did,” he laughed.

“You left your number?”

“It wasn’t something I normally did. I left it on a napkin on your nightstand before I left.”

Her cheek tinged red with embarrassment. “I may have, uh, accidentally thrown it away, Mulder.”

“We all make mistakes, Scully.”

“You know, you were the only one who has ever called me Scully,” she said, thoughtfully. “Even when I was with the Bureau, it was always Dana or Dr. Scully. Why did you call me that?”

He shrugged. “Would you prefer I call you Dana instead?”

She shook her head no and looked down at the menu. “Scully is just fine, Mulder. So what’s good here?”

He smiled and pointed at the menu. “The quesadilla is delicious but the crabcake ball and tuna bites are to die for.”

**Author's Note:**

> I do plan on writing more but with classes starting tomorrow and False Flags still taking up my time, I'll probably get to it towards the end of the month if all goes well.


End file.
